Are These the 8 Worst PowerPoints the Government Has Ever Produced?

Why the new secretary of defense (temporarily) banned slide decks.

After barely two weeks on the job, new Defense Secretary Ashton Carter issued an unexpected order to commanders preparing to brief him: ditch the PowerPoint. The request, which broke with the Pentagon’s tradition of slide deck-driven presentations, only applied to a meeting in Kuwait on anti-ISIS efforts. Carter was seeking “thoughtful analysis and discussion, not fixed briefings,” a spokesman told Military Times.

We’ve all sat through PowerPoint presentations that suffocate any chance for deep thought, let alone comprehension. But defense and intelligence agencies are in their own league when it comes to slide-based warfare. In honor of Carter’s small step toward less terrible meetings, here are some of the worst military and intel slides to ever see the light of day.

Many slides from the NSA, released by Edward Snowden, deserve to be on this list. Here are a few (via the Washington Post):

Honorable mention: The Pentagon’s guide to “Integrated Defense Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics Life Cycle Management System.” While not exactly a PowerPoint slide, this wall chart, found by Wired, shows just how crazy military graphics can get.